ALBANY — John Wagner, who ran a tuxedo shop on Lark Street for decades and helped transform the faded street into the city's funkiest thoroughfare, died late Thursday at Ellis Hospital of heart failure.

As owner of Waldorf Tuxedo since 1960, the 85-year-old Wagner built up a customer list that included celebrities like champion boxer Mike Tyson and football legend Lawrence Taylor, as well as Albany mayors like Erastus Corning 2nd and Thomas Whalen III.

When Wagner moved his shop from lower State Street to a century-old building at the corner of Lark and Lancaster streets in 1965, the street was "basically a lot of flophouses," said his son, Matthew, who took over the family business about six years ago after his father retired after a knee replacement.

Wagner later founded the Lark Street Merchants Association, which collected donations to beautify the street with benches, flower, and lights. Businesses that had been moving out now starting moving in.

By 1980, Wagner and the association founded Larkfest, a celebration that shut down the street and filled it with music, food, and a sea of people who were drawn to the reborn neighborhood's bohemian mix of shops and restaurants. And in 1984, he won an historic preservation award for rehabilitating his building.

"That was my father's pride and joy... that and his blueberries and his tomatoes," said Matthew. "He told me that he wanted his ashes scattered over his blueberries." He said his father was a "pioneer ... Lark Street looks the way it looks today because of people like my father and a lot of volunteers."

Frances Ingraham Heins, a former Times Union society writer and friend, said Wagner was a generous man who loved his neighborhood, his friends and giving away his produce.

"Albany has lost another part of its history," she said. "John loved everyone. He was loyal, and he knew how to keep a confidence. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone, or even ever swear."

"Without John Wagner, Lark Street could have been very seedy," she Heins said. "Every city has it visionaries, and how lucky we were to have John. He believed in the street."

She recalled a visit by herself and a friend to Wagner's home on Albany-Shaker Road, where he grew his blueberries, which were the towering high-bush variety with berries "the size of a dime." The bushes were draped with nets to keep away hungry birds, and Heins and her friend asked Wagner if they could go in and eat some berries. Wagner agreed, and in they went, but after gorging themselves, they found themselves trapped by the towering bushes and maze of nets. "I remember John on the outside, laughing, saying we could just stay in there then." Of course, he eventually showed them the way out.

That friend, Bill Allen, owner of three businesses on Lark Street and Wagner's vice president in the merchants' association starting in 1979. "We all called John the mayor of Lark Street. He had a heart of gold, and was willing to do anything for anyone." He said there were "times when I could not afford a tuxedo, and he would give me a tux. And I know if he was doing it for me, he was doing it for someone else."

He recalled the city's annual New Year's Eve Parade and how Wagner convinced city officials to reroute the parade through Lark Street, which was brightly decorated with lights. "He is surely going to be missed by us all," Allen said.

Former Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, who led that parade with Wagner, said he "loved Albany ... he wanted things to always be going forward. He stepped up for Lark Street early on, and then he stayed there. He wanted to make sure that it went in the right direction."

An Albany native, Wagner was a graduate of the former Vincentian Institute, and served in the U.S. Army in occupied Germany after World War II, said Matthew Wagner. He is survived by his wife, Ann; his other son, John Mark Wagner; and two daughters, Beth Wagner DeRusso and Sue Wagner Gleason, according to Matthew Wagner.

Wagner's wake will be 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at St. Pius X Church on Crumitie Road, Loudonville. The funeral is 10 a.m. Tuesday at the church, with Allen delivering the eulogy.